Industrial And Systems Engineering Research Articles

What does Industry 4.0 mean to Industrial Engineering Education?

Due to Industry 4.0 (I4.0), the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) undergraduate programs are changing; likewise, the complexity in organizations is increasing. Moreover, international competition, rising market volatility, and the demand for highly customized products are challenging enterprises. Against this scenario, the ISE educational programs should develop creative ways to quickly adequate new requirements. Beyond using advanced technologies, a discussion about the evolution and development of new competences in the ISE field is opened. Thus, this work analyzes the I4.0 impact on the ISE professionals’ desired skills by performing a literature review analysis and developing a cross-reference with the ISE skills. As a result, possible curricular innovations are identified to endeavor the current needs of the profession, and a new “ISE Education 4.0” framework is proposed, which includes five main pillars providing an overview of the new courses, strategies, and components driving the I4.0 education for ISE curricula.

A conceptual model for energy management in the steel industry: A Soft System Methodology (SSM) approach

This paper aims to use Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) to develop the steel industry's energy management framework. It proposes a soft system approach to analyze the complex situation of developing a support system for energy management. This approach consists of identifying the system scope, discovering underlying problems within, deriving a conceptual model from the complex situation, and identifying possible actors and activities to bring the conceptual model closer to reality. The identified activities could serve as a guideline for designing and developing an effective energy management framework in the steel industry. The result might also be further developed to drive the feasible, desirable changes into real implementation strategies and action plans. Currently, there is very limited SSM academic research in energy management. Hence the researchers sincerely hope that this study might help to drive the SSM methodology application in this field, in conjunction with the body of knowledge of Industrial and Systems Engineering (IISE).

Multidisciplinary Collaboration: an Integrated and Practical Approach to the Teaching of Project Management

This paper presents a practical approach to the teaching of applied project management in the form of a collaborative, multidisciplinary project involving the departments of Architecture and Urban Planning (AUP) and Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at Qatar University. The two courses, Construction and Project Management (ARCT 530 AUP) and Project Engineering (IENG 481 ISE), were running in the same semester, which made it possible to assemble multidisciplinary project teams that included students from both courses, and to share out the management and development roles between them. The primary objective was to simulate a real-world scenario that gave students the opportunity to address the problems arising out from typical situations of professional projects, such as collaboration and leadership within a team, organisation and tasks' allocation, and the ability to manage the time pressure and meet deadlines. This approach brought the theoretical teaching of project management to be closer to its practical application and made it easier for the students to learn the techniques and tools commonly used in the professional setting.

Computer programming with Python for industrial and systems engineers: Perspectives from an instructor and students

AbstractThis paper examines recent efforts at Binghamton University to teach the computer programming language Python to Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) undergraduates who possess little prior programming experience. The rationale behind selecting Python to teach is discussed. An evaluation of students’ learning outcomes shows that performance is distinguishable by gender, class standing, and class attendance. Lessons learned from the instructor's and the students’ perspectives are presented.

Systems engineering methods for enhancing the value stream in public health preparedness: the role of Markov models, simulation, and optimization.

Large-scale incidents such as the 2009 H1N1 outbreak, the 2011 European Escherichia coli outbreak, and Hurricane Sandy demonstrate the need for continuous improvement in emergency preparation, alert, and response systems globally. As questions relating to emergency preparedness and response continue to rise to the forefront, the field of industrial and systems engineering (ISE) emerges, as it provides sophisticated techniques that have the ability to model the system, simulate, and optimize complex systems, even under uncertainty. We applied three ISE techniques--Markov modeling, operations research (OR) or optimization, and computer simulation--to public health emergency preparedness. We present three models developed through a four-year partnership with stakeholders from state and local public health for effectively, efficiently, and appropriately responding to potential public health threats: (1) an OR model for optimal alerting in response to a public health event, (2) simulation models developed to respond to communicable disease events from the perspective of public health, and (3) simulation models for implementing pandemic influenza vaccination clinics representative of clinics in operation for the 2009-2010 H1N1 vaccinations in North Carolina. The methods employed by the ISE discipline offer powerful new insights to understand and improve public health emergency preparedness and response systems. The models can be used by public health practitioners not only to inform their planning decisions but also to provide a quantitative argument to support public health decision making and investment.

SYSTEMS ENGINEERING APPROACHES FOR IMPROVING REUSABLE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT REPROCESSING PROCESSES

Hospital reusable medical equipment (RME) includes any items that are intended to be reprocessed and reused indefinitely, including surgical instruments, dental equipment, endoscopes, and others. Such equipment represent a significant portion of a hospital's inventory costs and recently have generated significant patient cross-contamination concerns due to reprocessing cleaning failures. This paper discusses recent applications of industrial and systems engineering (ISyE) methods within healthcare organizations to help manage, understand, and improve RME processes, including quality control (QC), reliability, patient safety, facility layout, queuing networks, and inventory management models. Several examples demonstrate the value of these approaches for improved reprocessing management of RME technology.

An Effective Approach to Integrated Learning in Capstone Design

The H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) at Georgia Tech has developed an integrated approach to its capstone Senior Design course in which students form teams and identify, scope, and execute projects for real-world clients. Historically, the course has focused mainly on the engineering challenges of industry projects, but the skill set required of new industrial engineering and operations research practitioners is much broader. The new course structure creatively integrates internal and external resources for teaching business skills, soft skills, professionalism, and legal issues in an interdisciplinary, on-demand team-teaching format. Assessments show that student preparation has increased, especially in nontechnical areas. In addition, project quality has dramatically improved and is much more consistent. Both an external review board and the most recent ABET review cited the new Senior Design course as one of ISyE's strengths.

Medical decision making: open research challenges

In recent decades there have been many advances in methods for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. These advances have resulted in improved health care for many patients, including longer lifespan and a better quality of life. They have also increased the complexity of medical decisions and created an opportunity for industrial and systems engineering (ISE) and operations research (OR) methods to assist medical decision making. This article summarizes some of the active areas of research and describes several examples of open problems.

Integrating an Executive Panel on Communication info an Engineering Curriculum

Communication skills are key to the workforce success of engineering graduates. The Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) Workforce Communication Program at Georgia Tech has successfully incorporated executive panel interaction into its capstone design course to align student skills with executive expectations. The objectives of the panel are to raise student awareness about the importance of communication to workforce success and to gain knowledge about communication skills directly from executives. Executives interact directly with students about workforce communication, career advancement, and the communication skills they consider most critical. The process of assembling and holding a panel is described for potential implementation in other engineering programs.

Development of a Research Agenda at the Intersection of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Health Care: Implications for Human Factors and Ergonomics

In September, 2009, AHRQ and NSF convened a workshop in which experts in the fields of industrial and systems engineering (ISyE) and health care explored critical areas of research at the intersection of both fields. The objectives were to 1) articulate a vision for an ideal health care delivery system, 2) determine why current efforts to apply ISyE knowledge to health care have not resulted in meaningful change, and 3) propose a research and action agenda that should be pursued to enable the field of ISyE to substantially contribute to the realization of an ideal health care delivery system. This paper presents the vision of the ideal health care delivery system and elements of the research agenda that are salient to the field of human factors and ergonomics (HFE). The ideal health care delivery system was defined as one that is new, patient-centered, and engineered. The research agenda emphasized knowledge innovation related to systems monitoring, modeling, and modification, but also included items related to transfer of existing ISyE knowledge and integration and prioritization of knowledge in both fields. Recognizing that human factors and ergonomics is much larger than ISyE, this paper is also presented to the HFES community to identify which other perspectives may need to be included.